© 2025 Vista Higher Learning Vista’s Bridges: A Study of Reading Growth in MLs 14 RESULTS Who Completed the Study 461 students were identified for the final analysis sample after accounting for attrition, 233 treatment and 228 control. Of these students, 188 (41%) were enrolled in grade 6, 82 (18%) in grade 7, and 191 (41%) in grade 8. Reading Skills Level Growth The treatment and control groups began the study with nearly identical reading levels. Average scores differed by less than one point (treatment=533.18; control=532.37), a difference that was not statistically significant. This small gap—less than two hundredths of a standard deviation—meets the ESSA (What Works Clearinghouse, 2020) and Schneider et al. (2007) guidelines for valid group comparisons. The chart below shows reading growth for students in the Bridges treatment group from fall to spring, based on iReady reading assessment results. Question 1: Do grade 6-8 ML students receiving instruction incorporating Bridges (treatment group) show significant growth in English reading skills over the course of a school year? What is the magnitude of the growth achieved? Students showed clear improvement over the course of the year, with mean reading scores rising from 533 in the fall to 551 in the spring—a 17-point gain that reflects meaningful growth in reading proficiency for multilingual learners using Bridges. To answer question 1, we compared the growth in reading skills from the beginning to the end of the year achieved by the treatment group composed of ML students who received instruction incorporating Bridges. The basis for comparison were the beginning and end of year iReady Reading Skills assessment. These results are summarized and illustrated in Figure 3 and Table 5. Table 5 Reading Skills Growth for the Bridges Treatment Group iReady Reading Skills Pretest and Posttest Scores Test Occasion N Mean SD Fall iReady Pretest 233 533.18 52.915 Spring iReady Posttest 233 550.55 60.749 Students in the Bridges program demonstrated clear reading growth from fall to spring, with average scores increasing by more than 17 points on the iReady assessment. This represents measurable progress over the school year for multilingual learners participating in Bridges.
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